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Thursday, May 08, 2008

The Midweek: Schneider-Brooklyner Hopfenweisse

First bands, now brewers - I'm talking Supergroups.

When I first heard that Brooklyn and Schneider were brewing together and sharing each other's hops, my interest was naturally piqued - as a lover of both brewhouses. Surely this would make the brewing equivalent of Hendrix jamming with Led Zeppelin, Or Jeff Buckley duetting with Janis Joplin? (What can i say, I'm a child of Grunge...)

Maybe. I had to drink this beer; this month I managed to get my mitts on a couple of bottles (Thanks, Zak!)

Essentially, Schneider and Brooklyn have created a new beer style; and to be honest, it's a good, solid beer. The use of Halletauer hops give it a sharp edge, and a somewhat astringent aroma. However, upon tasting you see where the joins are - on one hand you get a citric, tropical burst with much less Banana and Cloves than you'd expect from a weizen - but then those hops come through and give you a high, high bitterness. It drinks really well, smooth and long - but toward the end of the glass it does become a bit of a struggle to drink - possibly simply due to its up-front flavours. This is no shrinking violet of a beer - 8.2abv with attitude to match.

Seek it out, even just to try it - it certainly is worth that. Supergroups - always interesting, but never as good as the original bands. If I can get my hands on the Brooklyn - Schneider version, I will let you know...

2 comments:

Yesterday I went to a beerfest to celebrate the 82nd birthday of Fred Eckardt, the forefather of American microbrewing. Handsome old coot. Anyways, I drank like a Viking and barfed and passed out by 7:00pm. Embarrassing. Stupid coginers.

oh yeah, funny you should mention that, the last time i goti n such a state was also on a sunday! Is it because we treat sundays like weekends, when in fact, the night is a 'school night'? I don't know. All i know is this - a 2pm start on a sunday seems like the best idea at the time, and very rarely ends up in a dignified manner.